Finally! The new bookshelf has been delivered and installed

It took about a month, but I’ve finally got our new bookshelf. It’s massive. Now I just need to put our books in there..

The Ubuntu Expedition

This week, I found myself without a decent working loaner laptop for the first time in a long time. And I needed to head into the office. And I needed to work on the train. So, I was left with no option but to pull out my old Dell Inspiron from 2002… Yes that hideous thing you see above.

Considering that it was slower than a sloth on Sunday, I decided to give Ubuntu a good old college try as my OS of choice. I downloaded the ISO file last night, burnt it to disk this morning, and tried to install it before I left for work. That didn’t work…

So I booted up XP, worked painfully slowly on the train, got to the office and tried again. And despite how long it took, I actually got it working – and the process was relatively pain free.

I haven’t tested it out fully yet – the battery went dead by the time I was on the train home to use it – but it seems to actually be not only functional, but comparatively speedy and efficient. I’m not that surprised – I had heard good things beforehand. It’s just nice to have a decent experience with a “PC”…

The problem now is that I have another loaner, and I doubt I’ll pull out the Inspiron again any time son, even to play with Ubuntu. I mean, I can play with Windows 7 now, and that’s the more exciting of the two, right? Right?

Finally, A New Study Worth Working In

We spent the better part of the past week painting the study. While it’s still not the perfect home office – I still need some decent shelving and we haven’t moved 90% of what we took out back in yet – it’s so much nicer. It’s actually a workspace, rather than a child’s bedroom.

I didn’t take any photos of the room prior to painting, but I do have some pics from when I made a short film for a story in T3 which should give you an idea of just how horrible an office environment it was to work in.

Looking Back At 2008

On the last day of 2008, I thought it would be prudent to sit back and look at the year that’s been. All told, Lauren and I have had a very big – and successful – year. After all, I started at Gizmodo, we got married, I travelled around a bit and now Lauren’s been promoted to manager of her work. Not a bad year for a couple in the penultimate year of their 20s…

And to think that this time last year I was in a state of turmoil. I’d just signed the contract for the job at Giz AU, and while I knew I’d be earning more money, I essentially needed to start running my work life like I was running my own business (which, technically, is what I’m doing), and that was a daunting prospect. On top of that, Lauren and I were in the final stretch for wedding preparations, and the costs were climbing every day it seemed. Last Christmas was a very budget affair, and it made it harder for us to know that we were climbing into more and more debt.

But then January came around – I started at Giz, and everything started getting better. By the time the wedding arrived in March, we were already much more at ease and although I have never been more nervous than I was on our wedding day, everything was better than perfect, including the Fijian honeymoon.

On the work front, things have just continued to expand. When I started in January at Giz, we had a monthly readership of about 250,000. In November, we cracked 800,000. Plus, we’ve just been announced as a finalist for best Australian blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards. And despite a handful of frustrating moments over the past year at work, looking back at what I’ve achieved gives me a nice warm feeling in my sub-cockle area.

Outside of the whole work and wedding spectrum – we’ve finally started getting the house in proper order. We finished painting the loungeroom, got ourselves a new wall-mounted TV, bought a new Mac at the start of the year, replanted the herb garden and generally kept things moving forward. And we don’t feel like we’re struggling financially anymore. Sure, we’re not wealthy, but we’re not poor either. I guess that makes us the shining example of middle-class…

It wasn’t all good though – Lauren’s had a few health issues that weren’t a lot of fun. Most of them are under control now though, so fingers crossed we won’t have any problems for next year.

So, what for 2009, the final year of our 20s? Well, I guess we’re both hoping for a fourth and fifth addition to our little family – both a dog friend for Simba and child of our own. Hopefully I’ll finally get around to painting this hideous pink study (doing it this weekend!), as well as the rest of the house. Plus, we’ll just continue the gradual process of making our home exactly the way we want it. And in the end, I just hope that we continue to grow the way we both did this year.

Happy New Year! I hope you all have as good a 2009 as we did a 2008.

8 Months After Our Wedding, We’ve Finally Paid It Off

Today is a good day for us. After 8 months or so, we’ve finally paid off our wedding.

It was hard work – I worked a little harder and longer than I otherwise would have, and we had to manage our money extremely carefully, not to mention going without a lot of nice little extras, but in the end, we’re now in a pretty good economic position. Sure, we still have debts (including a mortgage and a nice new TV), but we’re in a position where we can afford to pay those debts, as well as start saving a little.

I think that tonight I might crack open a celebratory beer.

Say Hello To My New TV

Last week, we had our brand new, 50-inch Panasonic plasma delivered and installed. When I say installed, I mean “stuck up on the wall”.

Coupled with the new entertainment unit, the loungeroom is starting to come together. Now all we need is a surround sound system…

I wrote up a feature for Giz on the wall-mounting process that I’d thoroughly recommend reading and, if you are so inclined, Digging.

The end result of wall mounting is a gorgeous look, but getting it done by a professional is thoroughly recommended. We’ve watched a few movies (including The Frighteners on HD DVD and The Shawshank Redemption), and both looked absolutely spectacular. This weekend it’ll be Iron Man on Blu-ray…

And The Home Theatre Setup Begins…

We had our TV cabinet delivered last weekend. It looks great.

Even better is that we went out and bought a new TV. Panasonics latest 50 incher. It’s being delivered on Tuesday. Now all we need is some surround sound and we’ll be cheering!

(The photo above is the exact same TV, but a review unit from Panasonic. I was so impressed that we went out and bought the same model.)

The Perfect Hot Totty Recipe

The perfect Hot Totty

The past couple of weeks have been tough – From Hong Kong to Sarah’s Birthday to the Influence Conference in the Hunter Valley to a week of events, I’ve been running myself ragged. So much so that yesterday morning I woke up coughing up all colours of the rainbow (a pleasant enough image for you all, I’m sure).

However, today I feel pretty good. And do you know why? It’s because of a little drink called the Hot Totty.

When I was in Ireland back when I was 18, I got pretty sick. I prescribed myself to a diet of Hot Tottys, and my cure could almost be considered miraculous. Since then, it seems I’d forgotten their medical power to battle the cold, until last week when I made one for Lauren when she was a bit crook.

Anyway, to get back to the subject, I have perfected the Hot Totty. I’ve just finished my course for the evening, and fully expect to wake up feeling well tomorrow.

If you want to know how to make the perfect Hot Totty yourself, check below:

Up Yours Door-to-Door Internet Salesman!

Last night at about 7:30pm, there was a knock on the door. Naturally the dog sprang up and I forced my way out of recline to see who it was. Flicking on the front light switch I opened the door to be greeted by a young door-to-door salesman.

“Good evening,” he said as I squinted through the screen door. “I’m here to offer you a great deal on your Internet and…”

I cut him off, before he could continue. “I’m sorry.” I said politely. “I’m not interested”.

As I moved to shut the door he snuck in a question: “Can I ask who you’re with, Sir?” I responded. Then the little fucker had the nerve to tut at me and shake his head. I closed the door in his face and switched off the light.

I don’t care who you are, if you’re a salesman, shaking your head like the purchasing choices someone has made are terrible is not the way to go about business. I know you had no idea who I was, but the simple fact is that I know my stuff, and although my current broadband plan may not be the best option for me now, it was when I signed up for a 24 month contract 6 months ago. When that contract expires, I’ll be all over a new plan and ISP like the pimples on your insolent little face, jerk.

So a big “Up Yours” to you. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the rage at being interrupted in the comfort of my own home at 7:30 at night. I’m almost sorry I didn’t find out who you were selling for so I could publicly deride you for shoddy business practices.

So sick of painting…

For the past two weekends, I’ve been painting the loungeroom. I would have been done after the first weekend, but for the fact that the previous owners did such a dodgy job that you could see their patching on the cornices.

So ok the weekend, along with bottling beer, I painted the cornices on the loungeroom.

But to add insult to injury, when I went to peel the painters tape off the ceiling, it came with the added bonus of pulling off the paint as well. So now I have to paint the ceiling as well. Which means I have to peel off the previous coat, sand it back then apply a couple of coats.

I’m so sick of painting…